The ability to rapidly develop software versions of parts for use in computer-implemented product designs is critical in today's environment, where the acceptable time from design to market is continually shrinking. These parts are typically contained in computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) parts libraries associated with various software design tools. Part development today, however, is a tedious, error prone and inefficient manual process. Errors in the part data, if left uncorrected, can later cause serious problems in the layout and manufacturing of the designed product.
In accordance with the invention, automation of part development brings about greater consistency, improved quality and higher development efficiency in library data. Library standards for parts are sufficiently detailed to cover both data and process information and are included in the part developers' working process. The working process then becomes a repeatable, divisible process whose steps can be divided among several members of a development team, enabling the part development effort to be distributed across multiple user and part supplier sites.